On their way to the Greater Magellanic Cloud, the RICHARD BURTON
must make several maintenance stops and refill their supplies of
Hawk converters on the spaceports of the Crystal Storm fleet, which
had been sent on ahead. The first stop is to be on the spaceport
DAWN-1. All five DAWN stations consist of three coupled together
PONTOON tenders and two LFT BOXES. They were designated after the
space sector in which they are stationed. Because the RICHARD BURTON
was damaged in a hyperstorm, the first maintenance stop is urgently
required – but something is not right on the spaceport.

Cilia Perish, a service engineer assigned to the station, notices
this when her lover disappears without a trace. It turns out that he
is only one of many crewmen that are either not to be found or have
called in sick. Nobody seems to take Cilia's concerns seriously.
Many crewmembers appear completely apathetic, while others behave
like remote controlled zombies. Cilia starts looking for her lover
on her own initiative, but is eventually arrested by the station
commander and locked up. With the help of her superintendent, who
has not been affected, she is able to get free, and the two observe
how the station crew is literally gorging themselves in a canteen.
There, Cilia's superior also changes into a hostile "zombie", and
she must paralyze him. Cilia discovers that the man has a small
swelling, like something from an insect bite. She realizes that she
has seen similar swellings on the other affected people.

When the RICHARD BURTON arrives, Reginald Bull immediately becomes
suspicious because of the strange behavior of the commander. He
sends Gucky and Kantiran onto the station. The two quickly find out
what has happened: on DAWN-1 a foreign being who was picked up in
intergalactic space from an escape pod has nested. The stranger is
an gigantic intelligent insect and can mentally control the people
with tiny living "relays" who bore into their bodies. In this way,
the stranger lures people to himself so he can eat them, because he
needs fresh meat to feed the brood growing up in him. He has brought
the station under his control and would only too gladly also over
take the RICHARD BURTON, in order to bring his birthed brood to
other victims.

Meanwhile, Cilia was also attracted by the gigantic insect, but
Kantiran is punctually on the spot to save her and kill the gigantic
insect. With the death of the stranger and his brood, the suggestive
influence fades and after a short time the maintenance work can be
accomplished.